William Partridge

William Patrick Partridge (8 March 1874 – 26 July 1917) was an Irish trade unionist and revolutionary socialist. He was a prominent member of James Connolly's Irish Citizen Army, and fought in the Easter Rising in Dublin 1916. He later served as a Dublin City Councillor. Early life Partridge was born in Sligo in 1874; his family lived at 6 Chapel Street after first living in West Gardens. His father, Benjamin Partridge, was an English train driver who moved to Ireland for work, and his mother, Ellen Hall, was an Irish Catholic. His older brother, Felix Partridge (1872–1957), became a noted playwright. The family moved after a short time and he was brought up in Ballaghaderreen, County Roscommon. He was apprenticed at 17 as a mechanical fitter with the Midland & Great Western Railway in Sligo. He was a keen writer from an early age and contributed stories and poems to a magazine called The Shamrock. Trade union work At age 22, he was transferred to the railways workshops at Broadstone (one source notes Inchicore) in Dublin and here he became involved in the union movement, joining the Amalgamated Society of Engineers. He was involved in the ASE led strikes in 1887 and 1902, making him a pioneer in the developing trade union movement in Ireland. Partridge became an organiser of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union which had been founded in 1909. He worked closely with Jim Larkin in setting up branches of the union outside Dublin. He was based at the union's Emmet Hall in Inchicore. He was involved in Conradh na Gaeilge (the Gaelic League) and was treasurer of the Inchicore branch. He campaigned for improved housing, education and civic amenities for the working people of Inchicore and he was elected to Dublin City Council where he served as a Sinn Féin councillor. He formed a branch of the ITGWU in Tralee, Listowel and Fenit Harbour and Killarney.